Saturday, October 7, 2017

Heart of Dakota {Curriculum Review}

I thought now would be a good time to do a review on the curriculum i'm using with my daughter.

This year i decided to go with Heart of Dakota's - Little Heart's for His Glory curriculum.

I bought the "Economy Package (1st Grade level)" and i added on their science program "Our Father's World - 1st Grade". I believe i ended up paying about $120.

Things that weren't included, but i could have bought as an extra on their website, were... Math, Handwriting, Phonics, and Bible.

Why didn't i choose to order those extras?

Well for Math, Heart of Dakota is linked up with Singapore Math, and if you've been reading my blog for any length of time now, you know how much i love Math-U-See.

For phonics, i already had All About Reading on hand. I bought it when i first started homeschooling and never really used it, but this year i decided to give it a go.

And for handwriting and a Bible, i already had a handwriting book for her and we already have several children's Bibles.

Here is everything that came in my box...

Little Hearts For His Glory (Teacher's guide)

History Stories for Children

History for Little Pilgrims

Our Father's World

Going on Eagerly

Just Thinking and Choosing

8 Children's Thrift Classics books

We are 11 weeks into using this curriculum and so far i have to say, i love it.

I feel like the lessons are short, fun, and engaging.

My daughter really loves the "Rhymes in Motion" activity we do every day. What it is, is every week she learns a new rhyme which she also acts out/does some physical movement to as well.

For example, week 5 she was learning a ten plagues. So she would hold up one finger, two fingers, etc. all the way to ten fingers, then she would reach up high and then touch her toes.

My favorite part of this curriculum is probably Storytime. These 8 classic books are so fun to read and i feel like they each teach a new lesson (loving yourself the way you are, don't try to be someone you are not, etc.).

So far we have been sticking to the lesson plans, but i think from here on out, we might switch things up a bit.

They have it broken up into units, for example unit 1-day 1, would be your first week and your first day. And so far we have been doing it like that.

But i think i'm going to try to do 2 units a week.

And my only reasons for that is; these lessons are short (we are able to get done in less than an hour) and i feel like this is more kindergarten work (and my daughter is in 1st grade). So i want to get done with this quickly and move on to their next level. I feel like my daughter is ready for that.

Have you used Heart of Dakota before? Leave me a comment and let me know what your thoughts on it are.